Miniaturized Lambeau Field Captured by Local Drone Pilot

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Green Bay Becomes “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”

The Packers pregame show before the Monday Night Football game against the 49ers will include drone footage of the Green Bay area and Lambeau Field in miniature, captured by a local photographer.

“I received a message from my co-worker that a producer from ESPN had called,” said Branden Bodendorfer, licensed drone pilot. “Upon returning the call, I learned that ESPN was interested in licensing some special footage.”

The network had come across aerial video that he had captured a year and a half ago of a miniaturized downtown Marshfield, and were interested in applying the same effect for Green Bay. To capture the footage, Bodendorfer flew a drone over the city using a tilt lens. The result is that Lambeau Field looks like something out of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – which for fans of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, it certainly is.

The concept of a tilt shift image is simple. “You want to make sure that camera has anywhere from a 15-40 degree angle. That represents the same thing as taking a flat image and tilting it back,” explained Bodendorfer. “The idea is you want to create more depth of field in your shot so that as you create those blurry lines on the top and bottom of your screen, the person watching sees more depth to the object you’re focusing on.”

A special lens can be purchased and mounted on the camera, or else there are various effects that can be applied in post-production.

Finding good weather for filming was a challenge because of the persistent rain hitting the area. Given that the area is classified as commercial airspace, a few calls were necessary to get the proper authorization to fly the drone.

“Going over to Green Bay was the easiest part,” said Bodendorfer.

Monday night’s NFL game will kick off at 7:15 p.m. between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers.

-Kaylin Speth

Editor’s Note: TriMedia is the parent company of OnFocus

News Desk
Author: News Desk

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